The Pocket Genealogist: Genealogical Numbering

There has been a recent rush in the genealogy publishing market to produce two to four page laminated guides. These guides have proven very popular as they typically provide a high density of basic information on a single topic. Guides reviewed on this site cover everything from researching a specific ethnic group or nationality to areas of specific research, like Ellis Island records or U.S. Census Records, and even dating specific types of photographs. Now the New England Historic Genealogical Society has jumped on the bandwagon, and is producing a series of laminated guides called The Pocket Genealogist.

One guide from this new series is The Pocket Genealogist: Genealogical Numbering. Whether you are producing a report from your genealogy software, using an online system, or writing a custom list of family information, number systems are important. Following standardized numbering systems will help your reader follow your intentions. This numbering guide is intended to help you “navigate and implement these basic numbering systems in your writing.

In addition to covering standardized numbering practices, this guide shows the reader how to use the automatic numbering feature in Microsoft Word. Along with this main content, there are a couple of tips which stand out in their own shaded boxes. The NEGHS guides are three-color, four-page laminated guides, pre-punched for insertion into a three-ringed binder.